Chile - Atacama

Chile and Atacama desert: photo and travel diary

Here under a photo gallery more fascinating than the other from the Atacama desert; Furthermore, a fun and very interesting travel diary , full of information and anecdotes, which describes the entire itinerary. If you haven't read it yet, take a look at the travel information for Chile and Argentina and the itinerary map here: www.wildrips.net/chile-argentina.htm.

Chile and Atacama desert: photo and travel diary

(The story of this holiday continues from the page with the itinerary in Central Chile ).
... driving through deserts a bit different from the previous ones, we reached San Pedro de Atacama Late afternoon, where we tried a hostel in the center. It was all very touristy, but we would still spend a double 40000 pesos for a double, with parking and kitchen available.
San Pedro is a wonderful destination for a vacation for landscapes around, for its bowls, for houses in Adobe (a kind of clay). There is full of bars and restaurants, in which you save (and you often eat even fresh stuff) by ordering the "menus of the day".
The next morning, with our beloved camioneta , we headed to the Moon valley, we paid the entrance ticket and began to explore those lunar landscapes.

We climbed on board the Camionet, but we will park soon to take another path of a couple of hours leading to a huge gray dune and then, higher, at the most amazing viewpoint of the Moon valley. He enjoyed a 360 degree view.
There were no tourists because most of the organized trips visit the valley in the afternoon: in Atacama if you are away from vacationers' tours change everything! The visit to the Moon valley must be made by car, to the end, with some walks.

The moon valley was at that moment the most incredible point of our travel itinerary in Chile, but we suspected that it would soon be overtaking. We returned to San Pedro in the early afternoon and, after a snack, we walked through the streets of the center. Towards the seven we headed with the Camionet to see the sunset from a panoramic point along the road to Calama , as some tours did. There was a beautiful view of the Moon valley, but many people: to get a picture on a suspended rock you had to be lined up (we went back to that same place one of the following morning and there was no one: we did the photos as we wanted And with a better light).

The next day we opted for visiting altipianic lagoons. We immediately met some nice animals.

Among immunely splendid landscapes I drove up to the lagoon of Mixing Mixers , a blue lake surrounded by yellow grass and red mountains. Equally beautiful was the lagoon minibes .

We resumed the car and we tried to explore the even higher mountains, up to 4000, with the idea of reaching the Aguas Caliienties lagoon , where the tours generally did not arrive (only those, more Rare and expensive, towards the Piedras Rojas ). Needless to say, this heavenly lake surrounded by a very white expanse of salt and multicolored mountains was even more strainably amazing than we had already seen.

We explored the area on foot in all its meanders, and then reached the other side of the lagoon, where we saw up close Guanachi and pink flamingos . Human beings only us!

We walked a further stretch of dirt to the next lagoon, just as beautiful: the photos speak for themselves. We followed some sandy track, driven by honely curiosity, the one that animated us before undertaking the journey and increased as a hand during the holiday.

Our stay in San Pedro, initially scheduled for two nights (more than anything else to keep us flexible with our travel itinerary), finally was prolonged to 6 days. We had the time, the following morning, to visit some characteristic but truly tiny villages - and the Quebrada de Jere (a canyon near tooconao ).

Returning to San Pedro we stopped at Laguna de Cejar , in the middle of the Salar de Atacama, in which it is possible to dive. It floats very easily because it is very salty, and in thirty strokes you can swim from side to side of the lagoon. A few tens of meters there are two more lagoons, almost equally beautiful, but where you can't bathe. The place was really special. We enjoyed it for half an hour, then they began to arrive by Pulmann of tourists: Paradiso Chilean became Rimini and we left - we did not use other confirmations on the banality of the tours. Moreover, a rental car divided between two people was more convenient than the organized tours, especially if rented in the cheapest Santiago, so for those who love driving and has no orientation problems (or worse than driving sleepers!) L ' Auto is definitely the recommended solution.

In the late afternoon, following the GPS navigator that seemed to indicate other ponds in the middle of the Salar de Atacama , and partly directing us on random dirt roads, found three other lagoons, less crowded, in one of which I died .

In the evening we stayed early, a good rule for an intense holiday when nightlife is scarce or does not attract too much. At the fourmen in the morning after we were ready to go and visit the Geyser of the Tatio , the highest geothermal field not only of Chile but even in the world (so they say), at an altitude of 4000 meters. It was in fact recommended to visit the geysers at dawn (although, with the then, it didn't seem so necessary). We drove for an hour and a half along a disconnected road, with a ford and a few holes, but still passable without 4x4. When it was dark, we arrived at the geysers, who did not produce the thirty-meter castings I had seen during my trip a href="iceland.htm"> Iceland , but the view was still remarkable and particular. The temperature was below zero.

Slowly, as he began to dawn, the vulls of the tours of people on vacation arrived.

In the geothermal field of El Tatio there is a puddle of hot water where you can bathe, but crowded with tourists. We went down towards the valley, stopping in a photogenic village where we found flamingos, foxes, Guanachi, alpaca and blade .

We then reached the Terme di Puritama . In the midst of a red canyon there are very scenic thermal pools, even if the expensive entrance (15000 pesos) and water temperatures however not particularly high, around 30-32 degrees, can rightly discourage the visit. There are better thermal baths in Chile, especially the Termas de Colina, as we will see during our travel itinerary in Central Chile.

We returned to San Pedro towards the 3. We ate some "tablas" and returned to the hotel. I then informed me in an agency to climb one of the mountains over 5000 meters around San Pedro. The easier volcano to go up was the Cerro Toco , 5604 meters above sea level. The excursion with guide and equipment cost 60000 pesos to head, minimum two people, but in the end I decided to go alone. The next morning I guided so towards the borders of Chile: Argentina and Bolivia were not far away.

Just before the turning point for the Bolivian border, I took a dirt road with which I reached 5000 meters of altitude: I missed oxygen!

However, very calmly, I started walking and after almost three hours I arrived on the top of Cerro Toco , at 5604 meters. What a spectacular view! One of the most beautiful views of the trip to Atacama.

I could in fact admire the green lagoon and the colorful mountains of Bolivia , the plain of Atacama, Mountains Rossi and White and Yellow and Grays in the Ande Chilean , the Volcano Licancabur , over 6000 meters high, which stands over San Pedro.
Back to the car and then to the asphalt, took the road to the Argentine border. The road that from San Pedro leads to the Passo Jama , in fact, crosses truly unique panoramas. Blue and celestial lakes, white salars, red rocks ... Take a look at the photos!

The next day we started the long trip route to return to Santiago. We left in the morning, soon enough, and we stopped to visit the Arcoiris Valley , or the Rainbow Valley, with other splendid and colorful dirt roads and paths to go.

At one and a half we arrived in Calama, sleeping to participate in the guided tour at gigantic Chuquicamata mine . This, in fact, can only be visited through a tour of almost three hours that starts every day from Calama at 13:30 and that it must be booked in advance. Surprisingly, we found a place!
The tour was very interesting: we visited the abandoned city of "Chuqui", where once the miners lived (then obliged to move to Calama due to atmospheric pollution). So the bus took us to a viewpoint on the gigantic open-air mine. The view was really impressive, the unreal dimensions: the mine is almost a kilometer and wide 3. trucks with wheels of 4 meters in diameter carry 300 tons of travel material. Recommended trip.

Calama is snubbed by the Lonely Planet as a Descalba town in which do not stop, but actually pretty and lively and much more typical of the tourist San Pedro. A gigantic tabla for two people 10 euros, Birre Crystal and Escudo to a Euro double room with bathroom in a hostel at about 300,000 pesos with breakfast included ... all much more convenient than in San Pedro.
The next morning we resumed the road along our semi-improvised travel itinerary. Since we left the "Clou" area of Atacama, the diary of the holiday continues to the page relating to the Chile Centrale , and then get to Patagonia . Take a look, I advise you, and not just because I wrote them!

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